2 Tim 3:16 Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,
All scripture is profitable, but not for all uses or implementations
Doctrine – abstract, certain use
Events – concrete, certain use
Sentiment – abstract, uncertain use
when Jesus says “I thank you for hiding the secrets from the wise and giving it to the children”
– it is because He wishes to confide the truths to those who are contrite in spirit, lowly, etc.
– those secrets are MEANT to be hidden to those who wish to exploit it or follow many gods at once
God designed the Bible and His will to be hidden from those who desire power
- e.g., “Lord I thank how you have hidden the wisdom from the wise”
- e.g., “making the wise fools and fools wise”
it’s an intentional set of paradoxes that only the humble can see
- e.g., beatitudes (blessed are the weak, poor, etc)
- if they knew what they’d receive otherwise, God would have a lot of people signing up to follow Jesus for the wrong reason
imagine if instead:
- “give up everything and I’ll make you rule planets someday”
- “someday, after millions of years of maturity, you will have the power you have seen me have, and even more than that, to the point that you’ll be able to raise the dead just like I can”
- “I will someday bestow the same amount of power as you’ve witnessed”
- obviously, this would attract the WRONG crowd of people
a key principle of managmeent is that the best managers are NOT power-hungry and care more about serving the people they manage
- the same reality likely applies to what God wants
and, even then, that’s not a foolproof situation
- many will say to me “Lord Lord”, but I’ll say “depart from me”
in many ways, the trials that God birngs to us is meant to show the world His goodness on the replay
- when we “receive the crown of righteousness”, we have worked hard to earn it
NOTE: GOD WORKS TECHNOLOGICALLY([results]), EVEN WHEN WE DON’T SEE IT
- we must always behave agriculturally with His plans
indicate God’s game theory and how He wishes to do things
The quantum superstates are designed with a built-in override switch
The intentional design of God’s plan, the Scriptures, and all of written history was designed to confound people
- Jesus: “Lord, thank you for hiding it from the wise”
- “making the wise foolish and foolish wise”
God is bigger than ideas
We often form the truth in our minds based on a predetermined stste of order
God, though, permits the unknown to prevail
We should not concern ourselves with complete understanding but instead in complete DOING with what we undwrstand
Bottom-Level Not Secret, Top-Level Secret
The Messiah was clearly transparent
- there was no obfuscation about anything
- there were no secrets or hidden things
The Cycle Perpetuates
society that turns (leftist) has less kids
society that follows God has more kids
this generationally reinforces His system
same for bioregulation across ecosystems
same for how mental illness destroys itself
God had the first word, and He will ALWAYS have the last one
[Jesus waiting to return] is in the interests of the unborn
- It is why the early church prayed to postpone the Day
Act, Then Understand
We don’t get more understanding from God because we haven’t used what He gave us
We can overspiritualize or overintellectualize, which makes our actions poor
- to gain spirituality or information from God, we muat practice with what we have first (talents parable)
Our goal for consuming scripture should be to apply it
He that desires to do My will shall know it – jn 7:17
Action precedes understanding
Side idea:
?? Action precedes essence or existence, meaning the origin is in action and not essence alone
God’s Intentional Paradoxes
God intentionally creates paradoxes to an untrained mind
- confess + believe, you’ll be saved (rom 10:9)
- he who perseveres to the end will be saved
- preach the Gospel to all nations
- make disciples of all nations
- NOTE: refer to “two views on great commission” essay on this
NOTE: grab the paradoxes from Skeptic’s Annotated Bible, may need to parse out the list of their assertions
This is intentional
- it requires a more sophisticated Hegelian-style dialectic
a dialectic is basically logic, and Hegel asserted a type of logic that worked through contradictions:
- Thesis: stated fact (the sky is blue)
- Antithesis: counter-fact (the sky is now gray)
- Synthesis: composite fact (the sky is sometimes blue, sometimes gray)
So, the paradoxes are intentionally easy to understand with patience, but difficult to those who demand [certainty]
- several views of the “salvation” paradox:
- pray and receive and that’s it (though this contradicts Paul’s assertion of “I ran the race”)
- you’re saved firstly, then saved later
- you can’t really know when you’re saved
- you reach a final salvation later
- the result is uncertainty enough that it requires fear and trembling to sort out
- preach the Gospel or make disciples
- you do both in equal measure